


The Beauty and the Tragedy

by Starbroken



Category: Beyblade, Metal Fight Beyblade | Beyblade: Metal Fusion
Genre: Gen, M/M, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-31
Updated: 2012-05-31
Packaged: 2017-11-06 10:37:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/417907
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starbroken/pseuds/Starbroken
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ryuusei taught Daidouji all he knew and only many years later he wondered why he never saw that it would lead to problems. Back in the day they had just been a regular teen and a cold child after all. (A possibility of the past Ryuusei and Daidouji might have shared. Mildly  suggesting the pairing at the end.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Beauty and the Tragedy

They say a real blader never backs down from a challenge. What kind of challenge had never been specified and was mostly left to individual interpretation. It was generally assumed that the mentioned challenges refered to beybattles, but some people took it a little further than that...

Ryuusei Hagane was doubtlessly the most popular teen in the hidden village of Komamura (whereas, back in these days, 'hidden' did not yet equal 'secret'). He had had the best starting conditions after all. Coming from the Hagane-family he'd practically been destined to become the guardian of Mount Hagane and the mysteries of beyblading, that Komamure held... at least people assumed it did, most were so mysterious that a great deal of the residents had no idea of them.

But it was not only that what made Ryuusei so famous in Komamura. By the time he hit 15 it was already fairly obvious, that he wasn't only talented and funny but that he'd grow up to be quite attractive as well.

And he definitely never backed down from any kind of challenge either.

All these reasons the village-people loved him for were reasons for Daidouji's family to despise Ryuusei. Not openly, of course, but they were rarely things they did openly either way. Despite living in Komamura they didn't seem to belong there at all, their entirely mind-set seemed completely different from their neighbour's.

At times Daidouji's mother would rant endlessly about the village-life and repeatedly point out how she could not wait for them to have enough money to leave this place forever and live in a nice big mansion. And it certainly seemed like her dream would be fullfilled in due time. Business was going well, too well to be entirely legal as some secretly suspected.

That wasn't the most significant difference to an average person in the mountains though. Because that was that Daidouji's parents were almost completely uncaring of beyblading. Even if in public they would pretend to be interested, they never supported their son with picking up the sport like other parents did, leaving Daidouji as an anti-social outcast.

And this is the point were Ryuusei and the challenges come into play.

"Hey! I don't think I've really talked to you before. I'm Ryuusei. Wanna have a beybattle with me?"

Daidouji looked up from the book he'd been reading and his gaze wandered over Ryuusei's blindingly bright and charming smile. Daidouji was eight years younger than the teen and yet he felt a lot more mature. He raised an eyebrow.

"I don't beyblade."

He might as well have said he was actually a sparkling unicorn princess that love to cut other people's toenails.

Ryuusei stared. It was true, he had never seen Daidouji hold a beyblade, but this? In Komamura the bey village of all places?

"You need to try!", he said with a voice full of determination as he reached out to close the book Daidouji was holding. Daidouji rolled his eyes. "Why should I?"

Befriending this guy was certainly a whole new kind of callenge, that much Ryuusei was sure of. But at that time he had no clue that it was the one thing even he would not be able to do nor did he know how much damage he'd cause with trying.

For some time it seemed to work out well though. While you could not call them friends, they were an odd pair of training partners at least.

Ryuusei had insisted on getting Daidouji a bey and now put a lot of effort into teaching him what he thought was the most important knowledge in the world.

And Daidouji definitely proved to be skilled. He absorbed facts about the technical side of beyblading extremely quickly and took great interest in legendary beyblades and their immense power.

All talk about blader's spirit and fun, however, only met deaf ears, he only laughed like those were childish fairytales.

Only years later Ryuusei figured that it should have made him wary.

Daidouji liked beyblading for a variety of reasons and none of them had to do with fun or making friends (a word which's meaning never quite got through to Daidouji). What he saw in beyblades was power both physically and mentally. Beyblades were certainly more than just mere toys and he got more and more convinced that they could be put to much better use. And aside from that picking up beyblading was the first step he took to distance himself from his parents.

At the same level his parents seemed to drive him away from Ryuusei. Daidouji had already thought Ryuuasei's overromaticized and optimistic speeches were laughable at their best and his parents poisounous words about the Hagane-family did the rest.

At some point Ryuusei couldn't help but notice that Daidouji was far from taking him serious anymore.

By the time Daidouji's mother's dream came true the child and the teen had become bitter about each other, unable to stop talking and unable to come to proper terms as well.

The good-bye felt horribly awkward to Ryuusei. Daidouji was in front of him, 9 years old, dressed in a proper and expensive suit and looked at Ryuusei through his glasses with eyes that were much older than they should be.

Ryuusei was 17, his clothes dirty and slightly torn. He'd been wearing them a lot during training. Compared to Daidouji he was almost tempted to feel be the one to feel like a child.

„Hmh... you're really leaving now, huh?", he said, awkwardly scratching the back of his head.

Daidouji nodded. „Obviously. Goodbye, Ryuusei Hagane."

Something in the way he said the name was unsettling.

„Bye, Daidouji", Ryuusei forced a smile, unable to tell why exactly he felt this unwell, „And have fun in the city, okay?"

He gave a thumb-up and Daidouji grinned twistedly.

„You taught me a lotand I will put that to good use."

Ryuusei shivered. It was spring, but he felt cold. Once again, he wondered if the person in front of him was really a kid, but as Daidouji turned away from him, his doubts were gone.

He watched as the boy with the frail back and the adult's clothing made his way towards the train and for a moment he thought about how lonely he might feel.

Daidouji didn't return to Komamura until 9 years later and as he arrived almost everything about him had changed. Every single movement he made was filled with an extreme confidence, his fauit finally seemed to belong on him and his eyes were cold and piercing, yet amused with everything they saw. He was laughing at world, but he was not having much fun.

He stpped into Ryuusei's house without any sort of invitation. Looking around, he chuckled lightly. The inside of the house was what other people might call ‚cozy' and ‚comfortable'. To Daidouji it seemed old-fashioned and small. He had a giant house all to himself after all and only recently he'd founded his own organisation. The village-life had just become alien to him.

The stairs thankfully made no sound as Daidouji stepped on them. While he did not play to stay unnoticed for long, it seemed more amusing to catch Ryuusei by surprise. He'd heard that the other man was now father of a six-year-old son, who's mother had left him four years ago.

Daidouji suspected that they had run into the relationship and the pregnancy barely post-adolescent, without any thoughts about the consequences at all. It had been too much for them, way too much, as they tried figuring out their life and got to know each other a bit better than they wanted to.

He found Ryuusei in his son's bedroom. The kid seemed asleep. His similarity to his father was very significant, almost concerningly so, considering his young age.

Daidouji watched the scene for a moment, then he cleared his throat.

„What a nice family you two make. Sorry about your wife thoigh, but I hope you're over it by now."

He did not sound sorry at all.

Ryuusei jumped up and quickly turned around, Daidouji smiled at him like a cat would smile at a mouse and the dim light reflected creepily on his glasses.

Ryuusei felt his heart hammer against his chest.

„Daidouji... What are you doing in my house?"

His tone was full of tension, but he spoke silently, not wanting to wake his kid.

Daidouji opened his arms a bit, as if to show he was not armed.

„Visiting an old friend. It's been a long time after all."

For a moment Ryuusei stayed silent then he nodded.

„Let's go to the kitchen then", he said slowly, „and have a talk."

As he switched on the kitchen light, Ryuusei could finally look Daidouji over properly. He recognized the facial features, the glasses and the hair, yet the person in front of him seemed to be a stranger.

When he had last seen Daidouji he'd watched a boy leave. Now a man had returned to the village. He knew that Daidouji could only be 18, but everything about him practically screamed ‚adult'. There was no denying he looked sharp, rich and successful.

„Tea?", Ryuusei asked absent-mindedly, while his eyes were still scanning the other man's appeareance. In comparision he himself had changed shockingly little.

Daidouji contemplated the offer for a moment, then he nodded. „Yes, please. So how have you been?"

Ryuusei noticded how Daidouji's eyes travelled over his furniture condescendingly. Reaching for the water boiler, the father raised his eyebrows. „Well. You seem to be already informed enouigh about my personal life though."

„Hmh...", Daidouji turned his head towards the window for a moment, „But it's different to hear from you personally."

His tone was pleasant enough, but Ryuusei felt the icy cold inside it. It was unnerving. Nightly, uninvited visitors were rarely good news.

„Hearing about you and what you achieved seems more inzteresting to me", he said and tried a smile.

For the link of an eye it seemed as if Daidouji tensed up, but the impression faded just as quickly.

„As I'm running my own business now I can say I'm well situated."

There had not been much else to be expected from him after all. It was all infortmation Daidouji seemed to be willing to give. A bit lacking for 9 missing years, Ryuusei thought, but he decided not to pursue the matter further.

An awkward silence took a hold of the room as Ryuusei found out how hard to was to get back on terms with someone after such a long time.

Meanwhile Daidouji looked as if he wanted to say something, but held back on purpose. The tea took it's time with getting ready.

„Your son looks like a nice boy."

Daidouji did not even make an effort to sound genuine. He had not expected to feel any sort of emotion when he returned to Komamura, but he had been wrong. It wasn't much and he couldn't quite place what it was, but it was there, persistently so. Daidouji ignored it to the best of his abilities.

The tea finally was kind enough to finish and Ryuusei filled two cups while he replied. His voice was more enthusiastic than before, because everything relating to his son made him happy.

„Ginga is amazing! He's nice and cheerful and he's surely got a lot of talent as a blader! Just like me when I was younger", he said proudly.

Daidouji bit back a comment about clone-children. Instead he took the cup offered to him and finally sat down.

Again, Ryuusei couldn't help but notice how attractive the other man had become, which surprised and irritated him on quite a few levels.

First, Daidouji was not actually handsome. His facial form was too hard, his eyes were small and cold and his nose was pretty hawk-like. But the way he moved, the way he grinned and his confidence... He might not look handsome, but he had an attractive feeling to him.

Which guided Ryuusei straight to the other points.

For one Daidouji was 8 years younger than him and that was just plain wrong. Second, Ryuusei considered himself a perfectly straight man (aside from some bi-curiosity years ago, which had just been that: curiosity).

And last but not least, Daidouji made him nervous on a not very pleasant level.

„So why did you come here? Visiting old friends is fine enough, but why after nine years?"

Ryuusei hoped to finally feel more at ease if only he could find out what brought Daidouji here. He'd like to believe it was about friendship, but that was as likely as Daidouji secretly being a woman.

Daidoji took a sip of his tea and smiled.

„I was just wondering if you could tell me some more stories about the beys that were hidden in the mountains. I'm particularly interested in the forbidden bey."

Despite the warm cup of tea in his hands Ryuusei suddenly felt very cold. The pieces fell into place and he didn't like the direction this was going in.

He felt as if he was looking into a hungry wolf's eyes. There was a clanc as Ryuusei forcefully put his cup down. A lot of tea splashed on the table. Daidouji raised an eyebrow at the display of bad style. Ryuusei stood up. „No. I'm sorry, but you no longer live here and therefore have no access to the mysteries of Komamura."

Daidouji had halfway been expecting this reply, only a tiny part of him had thought Ryuusei would so easily be fooled by his believes in friendship. This was more a game than anything else either way. He didn't believe to get much valuable information out of this visit. Why he did it in first place then was not easily defined. Maybe curiosity and a mere search for entertainment.

„What are you afraid of?", he asked and showed his teeth in a way that was more threatening than a smile should be, „It's not like anything bad would happen to you or those you love..."

Ryuusei felt his entire body going freezing cold as he heard the hidden threat in these words. He stood up, uncoordintatedly pushing his chair back in the process, and closed the distance to Daidouji, looking down at him.

„What have you turned into?"

Opposed to his outraged expression Ryuusei's voice was flat and toneless. All he could think about was how he should've seen this coming.

Daidouji looked up at him, showing no sign of irritation at all. Quite the contrary. He was smiling coldly.

„I haven't turned into anything. I've always been like this, maybe you just failed to see."

Their faces were close as the two men stared intently at each other.

It remineded Ryuusei of the looks they used to give each other before training. He'd thaught Daidouji everything he knew, now he just hoped it wouldn't backfire.

„I see..", he said slowly, a kind of melancholic heavyness mixi9ng into his anger, „I'd just hoped you could be different though."

There was no reacting in Daidouji's eyes so Ryuusei closed his and pressed a very quick kiss against the other man's lips, intuitively so, caused by reluctant attraction and the desperate hope to see some reaction after all.

Daidouji laughed, not even seeming very startled.

„Still the same, popular and charming Ryuusei Hagane."

He stood up, raising his hand to wave smoothly.

„I'll see you again. Be prepared for it anytime."

Ryuusei nodded grimly. „I'll be waiting for you."

As the door fell shut, he sank down onto his chair and let his head fall back to stare at the ceiling. His body felt numb and he thought of his son sleeping upstairs.

A crazy game of chess had just begun and he neither knew the rules nor his role. But the price was high.

Only as Daidouji sat alone in the back of his helicopter, he allowed his face to relax and with a dark expression he stared out of the window into the pitchblack night.

Now more than ever he knew that he wanted to break Ryuusei Hagane down and burn his entore past alongside him.

This was war.


End file.
